Poor Momma Monster. She has her hands full with six monster children who have the worst manners in the entire monster town. Thankfully, your young elementary student is here to save the day and help each of them learn a thing or two inside this sweet app. And each monster has some early literacy skills to teach your manner master in the meantime. (Say that ten times fast. I dare you.)

The app opens up to the main screen, where your app user can either enter the parent section (which is well protected by math problems so difficult I missed the first answer and had to use my fingers on the second), or straight into the app itself. A short video self-plays introducing mother monster's Read more …

This is a delightful interpretation of Goldilocks and The Three Bears - featuring a cute little Chinese girl named Mei Mei. In The Three Pandas, Mei Mei takes a tour of the pandas home, just like the familiar story of Goldilocks. However, in this version, Mei Mei has the manners to send an apology after running off into the forest. The pandas respond by inviting her over to fix the chair and share a meal. I really liked this twist.

The book itself is innovative in digital form, combining animated photos of the pandas, Mei Mei and their surroundings along with computer generated graphics - like the enchanting scenes of the bamboo forest. The music is also beautifully done, enhancing the Read more …

I really enjoyed A Royal Little Pest written by Anita Reynolds MacArthur and illustrated by Karen Roy. This is a great example of how a fun storybook app can teach little ones about the benefits of positive behavior. The story starts out with us being introduced to Prince Hayden MacCheeky who is a real little prince who lives with his royal brother and sister, parents and royal dog, Goober, in their royal castle. Prince Hayden MacCheeky loves to play around with his brother and sister but not necessarily the way they would like to him to play with them.

You see – Hayden is a bit of a pest and can’t understand why his siblings don’t like to play with him. One Read more …

This cute title from PicPocket Books features a kid-pleasing story about two brothers who make a lot of messes and give their parents grief at bedtime. At the end of a tiring day (which includes getting their toys taken away as punishment for being unruly), the children tell their mom and dad, "You're the worst parents ever!"

As they are about to fall asleep, one brother says to the other, "I wish we were the parents." In the morning, the boys discover they've been granted their wish and wake up as the parents in charge of a little boy and girl version of mom and dad. This Freaky Friday style plot will have young readers on the edge of their seats to find out what Read more …

There have been hundreds of Berenstain Bears stories published since the first one debuted 1962. Go Out to Eat is one of HarperCollins square paperback series, first published in print in 2009. According to Wikipedia:

"The books feature a family of anthropomorphicgrizzly bears who generally learn a moral or safety-related lesson in the course of each story. Since the 1962 debut of the first Berenstain Bears book, The Big Honey Hunt, the series has grown to over 300 titles, which have sold approximately 260 million copies in 23 languages."

This formula, sometimes criticized for being too moralistically simplistic, has been a fast favorite of Read more …

There have been hundreds of Berenstain Bears stories published since the first one debuted 1962. The Bad Influence is one of HarperCollins square paperback series, published in 2008. According to Wikipedia:

"The books feature a family of anthropomorphicgrizzly bears who generally learn a moral or safety-related lesson in the course of each story. Since the 1962 debut of the first Berenstain Bears book, The Big Honey Hunt, the series has grown to over 300 titles, which have sold approximately 260 million copies in 23 languages."

This formula, sometimes criticized for being too moralistically simplistic, has been a fast favorite of millions of young Read more …

What are you eating? is a little book that is a lot of fun for young kids. It is by a Dutch team called "Sieneke & Tineke" by their fans. They take the subject of eating and make a story-game of it. The book is a series of 10 scenes, each one of a child eating. On each page the narrator asks, "What are you eating?"

The children, pictured with a meal, give an answer that instead reveals what they are pretending. On the first page, a little boy is tossing his peas back and forth, so he says he is eating, "Frogs that jump from my fork!". Tap on the boy in the illustration and he makes a "ooh, ooh" sound like he's trying to catch the frogs. And if Read more …

Poor Momma Monster. She has her hands full with six monster children who have the worst manners in the entire monster town. Thankfully, your young elementary student is here to save the day and help each of them learn a thing or two inside this sweet app. And each monster has some early literacy skills to teach your manner master in the meantime. (Say that ten times fast. I dare you.)

The app opens up to the main screen, where your app user can either enter the parent section (which is well protected by math problems so difficult I missed the first answer and had to use my fingers on the second), or straight into the app itself. A short video self-plays introducing mother monster's Read more …

My Parents Are Crazy! is an animated, interactive book app from Confidence Through Characters, Inc. It was created by Katherine Geerdes, an educator from Southern California, and is designed to encourage children to read. It has optional narration, word highlighting,(which can also be switched on in read-by-myself mode), and the volume of the background sounds can be adjusted. it also includes a “learn” section with colorful flashcards featuring the sight words from the app, the sight word is spoken if these are touched. There is a page navigation option, so it is easy to return to favorite pages. The app is child-friendly with no adverts, in-app purchases or external links. Read more …

Princess Bouncerella isn't your run-of-the-mill, minds-her-manners kind of princess. She picks her nose, makes big messes and likes to take long baths in a tub filled with cotton candy. In an attempt to curb her of the nose picking, the king decrees that it will be outlawed and anyone caught digging into their nose will be punished severely, with some surprising consequences. The title is very lightly animated with a few fun touch points per page. The hand sketched illustrations are expressive, pairing well with the storyline's sense of humor. Simple but intuitive settings, including a page guide, let readers choose to hear the story in English, Spanish, Dutch or German.

AlphaBELCH is just what it says it is, "A Noisy A-to-Z Book About Animals Who Burp", but it is also much more! This title, originally created for the iPad, is full of really fun animals with a button on every page to hear them burp. A second button on every page can be tapped to hear the text narrated. This means if you want you can easily read this without narration. The narrator is great though, so either way this is great alphabet book, with all the educational value that parents expect.

It also has something kids love - the chance to laugh at funny sounds of bodily functions. And they are really funny and unexpected, like the fish that burp underwater and the firefly with Read more …

Little Steps to Good Habits (Vol. 1 & 2 - iTunes link above is to Vol. 1) is a two part series of digital books containing 8 short 'stories'. Each of the 8 stories attempts to show young children reasons to practice 'good habits' with 5 pages and a 'moral' page at the end. However, the stories are very simplistic, verging on the ridiculous. The one about not littering has a moral that includes the idea that littering can hurt someone, with a story in which a banana peel is left on the ground and someone slips on it.

In the story about hand washing, the mother lectures the child after not washing his hands before eating, claiming the child got a stomach infection as a result. Read more …